Its the beginning of the 20th century; the age of scientific progress. But for Venice the future looks bleak. A conference of scientists assembles to address the problems among whose delegates are the parents of twelve-year-old Teodora. Within days of her arrival she is subsumed into the secret life of Venice: a world in which salty-tongued mermaids run subversive printing presses ghosts good & bad patrol the streets & librarians turn fluidly into cats. A battle against forces determined to destroy the city once & for all quickly ensues. Only Teo the undrowned child who survived a tragic accident as a baby can go between the linings to subvert evil & restore order.